Emotions strong during MLK walk

STOCKTON - Hundreds of thousands gathered Monday in Washington, D.C., to witness the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Comment

By Kevin Parrish

recordnet.com

By Kevin Parrish

Posted Jan. 22, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Kevin Parrish

Posted Jan. 22, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

STOCKTON - Hundreds of thousands gathered Monday in Washington, D.C., to witness the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Eighty or so people assembled 2,781 miles away to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader who helped make Obama's political ascent possible.

What Stockton's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration lacked in numbers, it made up in emotion and sincerity.

"We come every year for the celebration and to honor Dr. King," said Kelly Nelson, a teacher with Head Start's home-based program. "We wouldn't be where we are today without him."

She was taking pictures of her good friend Victoria Walker, also a Head Start teacher in Stockton.

Walker was posing and pointing to the name plate beneath the city's Martin Luther King Jr. statue facing El Dorado Street. She was listed among the donors who in 2004 made the 6-foot bronze likeness possible.

"I'm not originally from Stockton," Walker said, "but I heard they needed money to finish this. I'm not a rich person, but I gave what I could."

The third Monday of January has been set aside as a federal holiday observing King's Jan. 15 birthday. Stockton's black community has held a public observance for more than 20 years. Participants this year met beneath the statue sculpted by Los Angeles artist Raphael Arrieta-Eskarzaga.

King is depicted with one arm raised and his palm turned up. He holds a Bible in the other hand.

Before marching around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza and City Hall, leaders spoke to those assembled.

Bobby Bivens, president of the Stockton chapter of the NAACP, said that businesses that remained open on the holiday were "disrespecting Martin Luther King, who stood for economic injustice."

Lanston Sylvester, pastor of Stockton's Mayfair Seventh-day Adventist Church, pointed out that King, who would have been 84 this year, has been dead longer than he lived. King was killed 45 years ago on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn. He was 39.

"We are all beneficiaries of his legacy," Sylvester said. "But we still have work to do. We must overcome evil with good. And the word 'overcome' means a process, not an end."

Charles Johnson, president of Stockton's Black Family Day celebration, brought his 4-year-old son, Ayande, to downtown's Martin Luther King Jr. Day event.

"It's exciting to be here," said Johnson, part of a Prince Hall Masonic Lodge contingent. "I wanted my son to see what Daddy does and to be a part of the community."